Cape Town — We all remember Paul the psychic octopus who correctly predicted a number of results at Euro 2008, and during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
The World Cup in Qatar had it’s own psychic animals, and they were terrible, getting every result wrong.
After correctly predicting that England’s Lionesses would win the European Championship earlier this year, meerkats at the Sussex Zoo were given the task of doing their magic during the World Cup ... and they sucked.
They predicted that England would beat France and reach the semi-finals of the World Cup, which did not happen. The French beat England and went to the final, where they were beaten by Argentina on Sunday.
We take a look at “psychic” animals who have become famous through the years.
Paul the octopus
The most famous “psychic” animal of all was Germany’s Paul the octopus. During Euro 2008 in Austria and Switzerland, and the 2010 World Cup in SA — both won by Spain — the octopus managed an impressive 87% success rate.
Paul correctly predicted Spain’s victory over the Netherlands at FNB Stadium, and called all of Germany’s group games at the two tournaments, including their loss to Serbia in 2010.
Unfortunately, Paul died three months after the World Cup at the ripe old age of two and a half.
Mani the parakeet
Paul the octopus wasn’t the only psychic animal predicting 2010 World Cup matches, and had a rival in Mani the parakeet from Singapore.
The parakeet was pretty good, correctly calling all four quarter-final clashes, including the Netherland’s win over Brazil in Gqeberha.
But, his record for the semi-finals were not that great, and he tipped the Dutch to beat Spain in the final. Unfortunately, Mani was not as accurate as Paul.
Achilles the cat
Achilles the deaf caf was Russia’s feline forecaster. Prior to the World Cup, he correctly called three out of four matches at the 2017 Confederations Cup.
He had a knack for getting opening games spot on. He correctly predicted that Russia would win their opening game against Saudi Arabia, and Italy’s win over Turkey in their first Euro 2020 game last year.
And then there was Rabio the octopus — another octopus — who was spot on for all of Japan’s games at the 2018 World Cup, but was killed and ended up at the market before the tournament ended.
IOL Sport